Harry's Future

Chapter 12

Chapter 12

"Okay, now I have a question for you," Harry said, looking around at the Defense Against the Dark Arts NEWT candidates. 

Harry had agreed to hold an impromptu session with Bill Weasley's most senior class seeing as he was staying over at Hogwarts and he had not been able to maintain their usual schedule of lectures due to his lengthy recuperation from his battle with the mutated Hungarian Horntail. He was in a pretty good mood this evening. Abagail had come down for dinner after another nap and she was looking healthier. She would never be someone described as robust but at least she had shaken the deathly pallor and most of the darkness under her eyes had faded. As he looked at the dozen or so students around him he smiled a little. 

"Should you be afraid of me?" he asked. 

All the students showed some degree of surprise and a couple looked shocked. Harry raised his eyebrows indicating he was waiting for a response. 

"No sir, I don't think any of us are afraid of you," a Gryffindor witch replied. 

"I didn't ask if you were afraid of me, I asked should you be afraid of me," he said quietly. 

"I don't understand, Mr. Potter, why should we be afraid of you?" a Hufflepuff wizard asked. 

"Well, let's face it. I've managed to get involved in some pretty scary things since I came to Hogwarts. People around me have gotten hurt or worse. I'd been tightly linked to Voldemort all those years and not too long ago I managed to kill a dragon pretty much all by myself. Doesn't that make me someone to fear?" he said, leaning forward in his chair. 

"Well, maybe put like that someone might think that but we know you, sir," the girl from Gryffindor said. "Everything you've ever done has been for the good of the rest of us. I know it's not supposed to be well known but everyone in Gryffindor Tower knows that you were ready to let Voldemort kill you so that he'd be able to be destroyed. No, sir, I can't think of any reason to be afraid of you," she finished adamantly. 

Harry smiled kindly and sat back in his chair. He looked around at the assembled students and saw them all nodding in agreement. 

"I didn't ask you that question because I wanted to hear how much you liked me," he said with a laugh. "I asked it to make a point. Fear of the unknown is very common among humans, muggle or magical. It's one of the reasons we don't want muggles to know about us because they don't understand us and that makes them fearful and they do some very unpleasant things when they are afraid. The same can be true for magical folk. Just because you read a story, or hear someone talk about something, don't assume that's the whole truth. When dealing with the Dark Arts, ignorance, not knowing, generates fear and that leads to rash action and mistakes. As successful NEWT candidates you will be among the most knowledgeable members of the wizarding world but there will be much that you still don't know. Don't look at the conclusion of this year as the end of your journey, but the start. I understand that several of you made the cut during Patroller try outs. I'm looking forward to you joining the team, but you'll come to understand what I'm talking about better than most. I don't know where the rest of you may find yourselves but I hope you'll never stop learning. Well, I think that pretty much does it for tonight. I don't think I'll be back up this way before your tests so the best of luck to you." 

Harry smiled as he slowly rose and shook hands with each of the students as they walked by to leave the classroom. He picked up his cane and was the last to leave the room. He wasn't thrilled with the idea of walking up all those stairs to the tower but there was no help for it so he took his time and made use of the cane as he went up each staircase. When he got to the common room there was a message for him from Hermione. She would be there tomorrow at eight o'clock and meet him for breakfast in the Great Hall.